Canopus

Canopus is a program designed to promote commercial content in the form of pop-ups, coupons, and so on. Therefore, we have classified it as an adware-type program. It is especially malicious since you cannot remove it via Control Panel, and it does not have a browser extension. This program uses an entirely different method to generate ads. In short, it works by changing your computer’s DNS and Winsock settings. So its manual deletion is quite tricky, but possible nonetheless. This article contains a short description of this adware and a manual removal guide. However, getting rid of it manually does not always work. If that is the case, then we suggest an antimalware tool. Let us begin by talking about where this application comes from.

Canopus used to be promoted on its dedicated website at Canopus.orgfree.com. However, currently, this site does not work. A lot of users accidentally installed this adware by clicking the blue Get Started button on that page. So we are pleased to see that this website is no longer active. Unfortunately, this program also comes as part of malicious software bundles that you can accidentally download by clicking fictitious Adobe Flash Player updates that come as banner ads on websites of questionable legitimacy. As you can see, this program’s creators go the extra mile to ensure that their program is well camouflaged. Note that such deceptive distribution methods are quite standard as no one would intentionally install programs such as this one.

Obviously, this program’s only purpose is to generate advertising revenue. However, generating this revenue does not come easily as we think that Canopus is using the Pay-per-click (PPC) system. This system keeps track of the number of clicks, so its developers only get paid if a user clicks an advertisement. Therefore, this application also collects information about its users to tailor the ads based on a user’s browsing preferences. The developers need this program to gather information such as user location and browsing history. This program can display all kinds of ads, but, when testing it, we found that it favors promoting Aliexpress.com. We do not think that Canopus is directly associated with this retailer. So it is most likely that the ads are forwarded by a third party and this software's developers only get a fraction of the profits. This program’s ads come labeled with “Ads by Canopus,” and they usually come in the form of pop-ups and coupons that can be quite annoying. So it is clear that this program is not set to benefit you, but rather dishonest advertisers.

Therefore, we recommend that you remove Canopus by using either our guide provided below or an anti-malware tool. However, as mentioned in the introduction, manual deletion might not always work, so keep this in mind. Moreover, a good anti-malware will stop an adware-type program dead in its tracks, so it will not even come close to infecting your computer. You should not take adware-type programs at face value, because they are bound to cause all kinds of trouble for unsuspecting users.

How to manually remove Canopus

1. Simultaneously press Windows Key+R on your keyboard.
2. Type cmd in the dialog box and click OK.
3. Type netsh winsoc reset next to C:\Windows\system32 and press Enter.
4. Then, type sfc /scanfile=C:\Windows\system32dnsapi.dl and press Enter.
5. Type sfc /scanfile=C:\Windows\syswow64\dnsapi.dll press Enter.
6. Done.